VALPARAISO – To become a “guy that makes things work,” Father Paul Quanz credits many individuals who have supported him in his temporal and spiritual endeavors. In return, the happy Catholic priest has shared his enthusiasm for being “full for Christ” serving as a high school principal, then a pastor and administrator.
“I've just had good people in my life who have taught me this or that," said Father Quanz, who started as a member of the Basilian Fathers, and presently serves as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows with administrative duties for the Catholic Communities on the east side of the diocese. “I’m just one lucky guy … I also wish everyone would be as happy with their life choices as I have been in mine. It’s not always been done in the proper sequence, but it has always worked out well.”
Speaking from his office overlooking the flower- and statue-lined prayer trail at OLS, Father Quanz added, “I think it was Pope John Paul II who (quoted the adage) ‘God writes straight with crooked lines.’”
A young Paul Quanz grew up in Wayland, a small town in southwest New York. His late parents, Walter and Helen Quanz, were good providers, raising him and his older brother and sister in the family farmhouse. The future priest was educated at the local parish school, St. Joseph.
As a hardworking youth, there was little time to play sports. Instead, Father Quanz learned to play piano. He said he was also one of the kids who “played Mass,” setting up a miniature altar in his bedroom.
Father Quanz kept the faith, through his time at Wayland Central High School and at St. St. John Fisher University in Rochester, N.Y. But as far as thoughts of a religious vocation, he eventually said, “No, I’m not going to do this.”
Father Quanz said he moved off campus with his friends, seeking to “not be bound by the rules,” like the prohibition of female guests in their rooms. Yet, something besides the thought of dating was brewing in his mind once the future priest attended a retreat presented by Basilian Fathers.
“It was the guys who led the retreat and how the relationship was built by the Basilians. I said, ‘that is what I want to do,’” Father Quanz explained.
His education continued at St. Michael’s Seminary in Toronto, Canada, and he was ordained a transitional deacon in the city at St. Basil’s Seminary in 1983. He returned to St. Joseph in Wayland in 1984, to celebrate his priestly ordination with family and friends.
How did the New York native begin a 28-year association with Andrean High School?
In 1984, Andrean was one of six high schools operated in the U.S. by the Basilians. Sisters of Ss. Cyril and Methodius also served there and lay teachers were the minority for many years at the Merrillville school. Father Quanz was assigned to the school where he taught physical science for a decade.
He became principal for the 59ers, a position he held from 1995-2012.
“It’s not so much the job, it’s if you love doing what you’re doing,” Father Quanz said. “Was I the textbook principal? Probably not. I was more of a maintenance man.”
He explained that to keep the school going and to provide the best education took resourcefulness. “The teachers in the classroom make all the difference in what happens,” the former principal said.
Bishop Dale J. Melczek appointed Father Quanz administrator at Our Lady of Sorrows in June of 2012. Within that month, the former principal moved out of his office at Andrean to familiarize himself with the parish that had been known for decades as the Franciscan-operated Seven Dolors Shrine.
Father Quanz said as the new priest at a parish, he came onboard to work “on that which is already in motion.” Though as he became acquainted with lay leaders, active faithful and visitors to the tranquil campus grounds, he connected with his surroundings in a way that reminded him of highlights from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “We come to know God first through creation.”
Though there are many theological references to this point, the priest with a green thumb summarized, “It is easy … He created us.”
During the first year of his service at Our Lady of Sorrows, Father Quanz was incardinated, or made a diocesan priest. In 2018, shortly after he was given the title pastor, Bishop Donald J. Hying appointed him as administrator to St. Mary, Otis; Sacred Heart, Wanatah; and St. Martin of Tours, LaCrosse.
In those years, Father Quanz said he has had many memorable moments, whether celebrating Mass in Valparaiso, or driving to meet the folks in the small-town churches in his charge. His home base is OLS, where he has cultivated an interest in natural beauty and landscape, working with volunteers to make the parish grounds an inviting place for people to stroll.
Though considered a senior by some standards, Father Quanz continues an active, age-dying lifestyle. The uncertainties of the future, he said, are in God’s hands. Meanwhile, the Valparaiso-based priest continues to lead local faithful in a spirit of renewal.
Father Quanz has been a proponent of a particular interactive faith-building series of presentations offered by ACTS XXIX. The name of the ministry, he said, mirrors a concept he has long thought of as exemplifying our call to bring people to a relationship with the savior.
“I thought of that a long time ago – I remember preaching on Pentecost and whatever the readings led me to, I said, ‘We’ve got the Old Testament about God the Father, we’ve got the New Testament about God the Son, and I said, we’re writing a testament with God the (Holy) Spirit,’” Father Quanz explained. “I didn’t call it ACTS XXIX (as Acts has 28 chapters), but I said, ‘We have to see ourselves (and think) maybe in a thousand years there’s going to be a testament written about what we did, and that’s ACTS 29.’”
Caption: Father Paul Quanz sits in Our Lady of Sorrows church, where he is pastor, on October 11. The Valparaiso-based priest and New York State native first arrived in the Diocese of Gary to serve as a teacher, then principal at Andrean High School in Merrillville when he was a part of the Basilian Fathers order. An early on-again, off-again interest in the religious life led him to the priesthood and a sense that he "is one lucky guy." (Anthony D. Alonzo photo)